Having developed a reputation as one of South Korea’s most renown directors, Chan-wook Park is currently putting the finishing touches on his first American outing, Stoker — and he’ll be looking to yet another continent for his next directorial effort The Ax. A remake of Costa-Gavras‘ 2005 French film Le couperage, which in turn was based on a novel by Donald Westlake, the story centers around a man who gets laid off and struggles to find another job. As desperation sets in, he hatches a plot to kill off the competition. Park’s been attached to the project since 2009, originally planning it as his follow-up to Thirst before he put it on hold to do Stoker.

In an interview with Korean JoongAng Daily, Park revealed that he’s starting to look into casting and financing The Ax, so we can probably expect to see it hit within the next few years. It’s unclear at this point whether Park will be staying in the U.S. for the film, or whether he plans to return to his native country. For what it’s worth, though, Park says he’d like to continue working in both nations. “Actually, it doesn’t matter to me where a film is made,” he added. “If the story is good, I’ll follow it.” [via The Film Stage]

After the jump, a man who once brought us Nazi zombies redirects his attention to futuristic bounty hunters.

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So while we wait for Park Chan-wook to get to work producing Boon Joon-ho’s film based on the French comic Transperceneige, the script for which should be underway now for a 2011 or 2012 release date, we may get to see Park tackle a story that mixes topical issues with hard-boiled noir. There’s a report that he’ll remake Le couperage (The Ax), a 2005 film by Costa-Gavras, which was based upon the famous (and late) crime author Donald Westlake‘s novel of the same name. Read More »